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August wrote:Other schools are also drawing attention to their recruits' successes in post season tourneys so why we aren't jumping in on that I can only imagine. I guess time will tell.

Yeah. A couple of our 2012 players are having really nice ECNL and high school seasons. Most notably Lissi Lonsberry who has 20 goals in 25 games with Carroll and 12 goals in 15 ECNL games with the Texans.

Shannon Moroney was also part of the ECNL player development program event in Dallas a couple of weeks ago.

Plus, Lonsberry won the ESPN high school soccer goal of the week this week!

http://espn.go.com/high-school/girls-soccer/video/clip?id=7722511

Sweet goal too.

It's great as always to see SMU mentioned. The goal is also the current top story on the HS girls home page with "A recent strike by Southern Methodist University signee Lissi Lonsberry" in the text. Go Ponies!

Spring season starts in two days. I assume it will be the standard stealth affair as well.

DanFreibergerForHeisman wrote:Spring season starts in two days. I assume it will be the standard stealth affair as well.

Funny you should say that since I have already been on Midwestern's webpage looking for updates. But you know it's probably true and we won't hear anything unless we roll over them and maybe not even then.

I'm not too excited about Spring but hoping some of the new players can bring some offensive life to our team in August.

More national press for an incoming SMU recruit - as the Dallas Texans U18s are ranked No. 1 in ESPN's initial ECNL national rankings:

http://espn.go.com/high-school/girls-soccer/story/_/id/7725545/ecnl-u18-power-rankings

1. Dallas Texans (15-0-1) Led by Texas signee Kelsey Shimmick and SMU-bound Lissi Lonsberry, the Texans have rolled.

DanFreibergerForHeisman wrote:Shannon Moroney (GK, 5'11", Allen / Allen, D'Feeters / topdrawer 4-star)

Moroney has played 15 ECNL (B) games this season, and the team has given up less than one goal per game. She is also currently the captain of her high school team.

Obviously with two years in the system and working with Joe, Lauryn Bodden will get the first chance at replacing Courtney Webb in goal. Moroney has great size, and appears to have the pedigree to potentially push Bodden for minutes possibly even as early as this season.

Get ready, Shannon.

Finally - the release from the school. They obviously weren't holding it for any new signings.

http://www.smumustangs.com/sports/w-soccer/spec-rel/032812aab.html

After thinking about this, it is probably unfair to be overly critical of the program for the delay in the signing day release. It's still strange and unfortunate, but I'm sure there was a good reason.

It could have been something admissions related (waiting for a grade or test score), or something medical (maybe obtaining an insurance waiver for a previous injury), or even just getting all of the scholarship money officially settled with the players who have left, etc.

With all of the information out there now about recruiting we know the class a year or two in advance - and if they did the release with one of the players missing while they sorted out the details then we would be on the message boards wondering what happened to Player X - so the school is kind of in a no-win situation.

In the past they have always just done the release and if somebody didn't show up in the fall they were just kind of forgotten, but with the new compliance director maybe they are being more careful about making things "official".

Anyway, whatever the reason, I'm glad to see all five of the players officially confirmed by the school and I am looking forward to seeing their impact in August.

Go Ponies!